October 21, 2010

I can only imagine the impression this makes on a young, gay person who actually is suicidal. I'm old, heterosexual, and an immense fan of staying alive. But I can't see why would it would help to hear this dreary, robotic intonation of conventional advice from a representative of an administration that is fighting, in courts, against the rights of gay people to serve in the military and to marry.

ADDED: "Tomorrow will be better"... that's the message. I note the red dress. Why not:

AND: I think that song really makes you want to stay alive. Look:

There's so much room for personal taste. To each his own. For love partners and for things that stimulate the will to live.

Hillary: Hey, I am gay. But after a loveless marriage with a serial philander. I did manage a pretty decent kid and a okay career. And the love of my life was with me for a while, till she entered her own lie of a marriage. And now I am working for an administration that is saying its for gay rights while working against them for short term political gain. So if you lie to your self long enough, yeah you will be happy.

A friend of mine who is gay posted this on facebook the other day (yesterday there was also a "wear purple" campaign to support LGBT teens or something). Maybe it will have an impact on somebody...but lots of teens need to hear the anti-suicide message because gay teenagers are not the only ones who kill themselves. It seems like we talked about this more when I was a teenager than they do now.

Has there currently been a rash of gay teen suicides? More than usual? I recall a couple of high profile teen suicides related to cyber-bullying, one of which not far from my house, but they weren't related to being gay, as I recall.

I'm just not sure the whole It gets better message is the right one. What's wrong with Learn to deal with difficult people? It's a very difficult task to master -- especially so, I guess, for someone with little social network, but such a vital life skill. Ultimately, you are responsible for being happy in your life, if that's what you want to be. You will meet people all through life who delight in knocking you down, both literally and metaphorically. Anti-Bullying laws just reinforce the notion that someone will take care of you and that is in no way guaranteed.

It seems to me that some of those who kill themselves are waiting for someone to rescue them. And they give up waiting. I don't claim to understand the depressive mind state that unrelenting abuse might force a person into. But I wonder if tools other than waiting for a brighter tomorrow might be more productive for them.

I write this from the perspective of the former bullied, but someone with kids who are not -- to my knowledge -- either bullied or bullier.

I have a very simple solution to fix bullying...make it easier to drop out of high school.

High school is a miserable place that teaches nothing that's not covered again in Community College. Quite putting barriers in the way of bright kids who want to forego the miserable drudgery that is high school and get on with making their futures.

Failing that; get over the school spirit thing. Present it like what it is...a temporary place to learn some skills that will be of value out in the world.

Its fine to point out the administration's failure to properly stand up for gay rights on DADT but why the needless mockery of Clinton who is contributing to a worthy cause? And yet the O'Connell storm in a tea cup produced several outraged posts from you.

Agree with the sentiment expressed by Ms Clinton--but this is NOT the appropriate forum for the Secretary of State for God's sake. Sibelius or the Surgeon General were the apropriate people for such a spot. (Unless, of course, she has political ambitions beyond the term of her current portfolio--nahhh, couldnt be)

MM, I'm not sure I agree. I see the Learn to deal strategy as a fine long-term goal, but in the short-term they need something NOW. You need to speak to them where they are, right now, not down the road. I think you have to remember that they’re doing the best they can with what they know. They are simply surviving and may be running out ways to do that. Get them through this and in time, this will give them that chance to learn. That’s actually how I hear the It gets better message.

As for them waiting for someone to rescue them, I’m doubtful. From the stories I’ve heard, for the most part, I think it’s something they gave up on a long time ago.

If we put a stop to the bullying of gay kids, the bullies will just have more quality time to spend with the fat kids......Has anyone gone through childhood without being bullied? Has anyone gone through childhood without being a bully?...There was an interesting column by Maggie Gallagher yesterday. She pointed out that the gays kids have a lot more problems in their lives than school bullies.

After The Zero and Michelle's version of "Wayne's World", we now have the Hildabeast doing one of those deadpan PSAs from the 50s. I think she realizes nobody is going to flock to the Presidential standard of a 65 year old woman who was never anywhere as good as her PR touted her to be.

c3 said...

Why Clinton? Why the Secretary of State? Are there openly gay career foreign service employees who have been bullied and are now suicidal?

Until Eisenhower signed a law that State Department employees couldn't be fired, it was notorious for homosexual conduct and the attendant security risks.

AlphaLiberal said...

How nice for you, Ann Althouse, that the effort to stem suicides among young bullied gays provides a nice snarking opportunity.

You don't give a shit about the suicides, you just want to bash liberals and Democrats.

Notice Alpha turns this into a Party-political philosophy thing. Ann wears her heart on her sleeve on this issue, but all Alpha wants to whine about is how the Demos are taking it on the chin.

Last month my reserve unit got together to discuss how we were going to train in the new fiscal year and manage our missions. We visited VMI and went thru the George Marshall center. Seeing her in this just highlights how superficial our "elite" have become. I thought Hillary was an adult but looks like all that time with the other children in this administration has rubbed off. There was a time when the US were the adults at the table. Now I'm convinced its the Chinese.

There was a freshman college student who killed himself because his roommate posted a video online of him have sex with a guy. There hasn’t’ been a “rash” of suicides though, just a high profile one.

I'm just not sure the whole It gets better message is the right one. What's wrong with Learn to deal with difficult people?

I agree with you, but for teenagers in high school, it really does get better when you get out of that environment. Specifically for kids being bullied, I think that is a good message. Although I think if you’re a parent, maybe moving your kid could solve the problems more effectively.

People love life with their expression of their emotion to love, to hate, to be angry, etc.. Unexpressed emotions are a form of mini self suicide. So telling gays that they must hide out is a cruel thing. Therefore any sympathy whether false or real is a great political move for Hillary's next campaign. If Momma Grizzlie Palin can use her female care for people as a political tool, then so can the Momma Clinton.

A little facial touching up is not a bad thing - she can barely keep her eyes open for half of it. Can someone looking like she does here hope to inspire anyone about living?

Before you get all partisan here, I have commented several times previously on this blog that I found Hillary to be an attractive woman.

What happened?!

First, I agree she can look good at times, but I do believe she's had some work done (look at some old photos of her). She shows her age when she's tired or emotionally drawn and seems to use some of those non-surgical lifts, so there can be quite a range in appearance.

Not being nasty, but look at a range of photos from the '08 primaries to today.

WV "squothe" Little known ablative absolute form of quoth debunked by Ann Althouse.

I think she had the perfect 'do for the election, and needs to get back to that. She's rich enough to afford extensions or hair plugs (for thickness). And if she wants to to '16, she'd better start her exercise of choice and eat very discrimatingly. She'll also need a little cosmetic surgery to tighten the facial skin, but not too much, of course.

There was a freshman college student who killed himself because his roommate posted a video online of him have sex with a guy. There hasn’t’ been a “rash” of suicides though, just a high profile one.

And my understanding is that he suffered from Clinical depression. What they did to him was wrong, and they should be shot for it. But if Hillary were serious, she would be raising awareness about depression.

Suicides of young people is a problem. It has always been a problem. I do not think it is growing. And it is not confined to gay teens (although I would agree they face additional pressures and conflicts). But given the options for gays, life is by far better for them now than it was in the past, isn't it?

I down people who are depressed and need to give it a reason. So it is because they are fat, gay, too tall, too short, white, black, etc., etc. Sometimes you are just depressed.

Shanna: I could not agree more on the conflict resolution matter. In the old days kids were permitted to fight on school yards. Not to the death, but close. Now it is not permitted to consider it. Thus all conflict resolution rests with the authorities. go to any kid's sports games now and they will be in uniforms and there will be umpires. again, in the olden times kids settled close calls themselves sometimes with their fists.

DADvocate wrote: Watching the video I had the hangman's knot tied in the rope, had it around my kneck and was standing in a chair with rollers. Luckily the video ended.

LOL. I learned to tie the hangman's knot as a kid. It came in handy when I staged elaborate hangings as part of my Johnny West fantasy world. GI Joe was always getting strung-up for something or other.

Did you know that the same knot is useful for storing rope? Check it out here.

Did you know that the same knot is useful for storing rope? Check it out here.

Wow. That was very interesting. I've been looking online for some knots and instruction. I need to tie several small stuffed triangles together in sets of four and want to have the knots create a small gap between some of the points of the triangles.

... and to all you young MSMs out there, there is no need to be precipitous. According to the CDC there is a a high probability that you will develop life-threatening HIV/AIDS. So you are not alone. You may even have an opportunity to take someone with you. We here in the State Department want you to know that we support you.

I only made it about halfway through before I got bored. I didn't hear anything objectionable in the message. But the concept does strike me as borderline wrong.

I assume this is supposed to be part of Dan Savage's project. To me, that seemed like not too bad an idea ... people like him providing personal experiences and living proof that if gay kids are having trouble, they still have things to look forward to.

But a lot of people jumped on that bandwagon that I don't believe were meant to do so. You'll see a lot of these messages on youtube from people who have not gone through what Savage has, or what the intended audience may have. They're just preening straight people desperate to prove their compassion by appropriating the oppression of others as their own cause. I don't think it's their place to do so. It's a big thing with certain kinds of hipster chicks -- the kind that used to be called a f-- h--. I know people who have done this, people who have suffered nothing, and I find it unseemly.

No one will be helped by this video, and to the extent that it adds to the clutter and makes it harder to find a better one, it's a hindrance.

Call me old-fashioned, but I have lived long enough to know, with CERTAINTY, that "suffering" is always relative, and always part and parcel of what makes us all human. I sometimes suffer, and I see you do too.

Force ranking another person's "shit" in comparison to my own? I do that "regularly" in hopes of avoiding either constipation or diarrhea.

There is more than enough "shit" to go around, and because of that, it makes me feel SO much better to see myself as a student of "waste management".

Personally? I would add "waste management" on a top ten list of "Jobs for an Improved Future".

What a pathetic cynical group of people on this thread.. yeah, she needed one or two of her campaign perfected smile says one moron who voted for the 'toothpaste commercial' man who turns on his creepy smile at the drop of a hat.

This is what she has done over the years which is more than the idiot in the WH. Clinton has long been a supporter of LGBT rights (10 years ago she was the first First Lady to march in a pride parade), and she declared in June that "Human rights are gay rights and gay rights are human rights." During her tenure as secretary of state, several LGBT-friendly policies has been enacted at the State Department, including equal benefits for same-sex partners of State Department employees, new regulations that make it easier for transgender Americans to amend their passports, and grants to help human rights advocates in other countries who are in danger due to their LGBT status or their work on LGBT issues.

Jesus, can she be any more ambivalent and vacant in her delivery? Shr might as well just say, "You know what, I don't really give a fuck, but I have to say this because I'm a public figure and maybe, just maybe on of you morons will be old enough to vote for me when I run in 2016. So, just remember who told you not to kill yourself, so you vote me in as president, so you can kill yourself after I'm in inaugurated and finish what Erkle started. Thank you."